Life Begins at 30

Andrea Nguyen: Safe Eating While in Vietnam

Andrea Nguyen has published a great post about safe eating while in Vietnam.  I followed the same sort of safe eating philosophy while I was there for three weeks this year, and was sick only for a couple of hours about a week in.  And I wouldn't do anything differently next time -- I enjoyed the freedom that I had with pretty much eating anything once I'd set my own personal rules about eating fresh food, hot food, drinking lots of bottled water, and not freaking out too much after that.

I would add to this post by saying that I went into my doctor and told him I was going, and that I was going to eat everything, and that I needed meds in case anything happened.  He gave me Cipro, which I never took, and a couple other meds for my travel bag.

I had ice in my drinks a little more often than it sounds like Andrea did, but I had a theory that gin killed any bugs that were in my ice (grin).

SPQR, Photos, and New Site Design!

Durian vendor, Ho Chi Minh City

I wrote a post on Tuesday at KQED's Bay Area Bites detailing my first impressions of SPQR.  I don't often do formal restaurant reviews, so this one is called "SPQR: A preliminary report."  In the words that I used on my flickr page, "Go.  Go Now."   I have a long history with A16, so the fact that I had to try SPQR within days of its opening probably isn't a surprise.

Speaking of Flickr, I've been slowly going through the Vietnam trip photos and posting a couple a day.   The photo above is one that I posted this week.  Nine months after the trip, I am finally feeling like I can start to digest parts of it and talk about it.  It took that long to not be completely overwhelmed by that amazing trip.   So I've been writing a small amount about my impressions with the photos.  You can see it all in the Vietnam Collection of my Flickr.  You can subscribe to a feed of my Flickr photos using this link.

Also, if you read this site through an RSS reader, you may not notice the site's new look.  I am happy to have new digs.  Thanks for everyone who weighed in months ago about the new look.  I chose a design that will allow me to swap photos in and out of the banner fairly easily.

I had no idea ...

I'm a bit of a thinker.  Most things that there are to think about, I feel like I've pondered.  But I can honestly say that I never ever wondered what a pineapple plant looked like.  And when I came upon one in an orchard I was wandering in the Mekong Delta, it was a revelation.  Good grief, it was beautiful. 

On my tour, we had a home stay in the Delta.  I am a tiny bit of a princess about where I lay my head.  "I don't camp and I don't go to dumps," I've been known to tell friends.  Give me a chicken to break down, or homemade soup on a street corner and I'm fine, but I was a little apprehensive about our home stay.

But it was wonderful.  And as soon as I saw the line of hammocks for us to relax in, I knew that we were in good hands.  We played charades between 3 Americans, 2 Vietnamese, a Norwegian, and 3 Aussies, and I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard.  We ate fantastic food - most memorably a whole fish that was artfully presented. 

An ice chest full of cold beer was set out and we kept a tally of how many we had so that we could pay in the morning.  And then we retired to long bunks in our location right over the river.  The next morning we were up to check out the floating market, then it was back to Ho Chi Minh City for a few final chaotic days.

The Boiled Goat Inn, Ho Chi Minh City

I laughed yesterday as I was cleaning up some things around the house and this business card fell out of my stack of papers.  I had been searching for it since I'd returned from Vietnam, and had been wanting to tell you about it.  But somehow the story of the restaurant wouldn't have the impact unless I could show you the business card.

The weather for most of my trip in Vietnam ranged from temperate through the center part of the country to downright cold in Hanoi and Hue.  By the time we got to Saigon, however, the temperatures were climbing and I was pretty hot the entire time.  I'm sure the Vietnamese would laugh that I even thought it was hot, however, because it was pretty mild compared to later in the year.

Malik had met an ex-patriate American who told him that the "Boiled Goat Inn" was a must-go place - one of his favorites.  As luck would have it, we spent one of the warmest afternoons in this open-air restaurant cooking over a charcoal fire.  The list that you see on the business card was the entire menu of the restaurant: boiled goat meat, fried goat meat, roasted goat meat, mixed sour goat meat, or special goat meat boiled with Chinese Medicine. We opted for roasted goat, over fire, and a goat hot pot (aka "Boiled Goat").

Many things on this table typify the way that I ate in Vietnam.  Toward the lower right-hand side of the table, the white things in the blue bowl are our "napkins" -- cold, wet towels that came pre-wrapped and were available at every level of restaurant. 

Each area had their own beers -- in Ho Chi Minh City I usually chose between Saigon Red (seen here) or Saigon Green.

At this restaurant, we (or rather, Malik) cooked the goat over the fire, and then took the rice paper wrappers (bottom left-hand corner of the greens platter) and wrapped it with a combination of greens.  We ended up cooking the okra and the spring onions on the grill like you would in Mexico, and then added the various greens.  The only thing I avoided were the green bananas which were so tannic that they sucked every ounce of moisture out of my mouth.

If you look closely on that platter, you'll notice peanuts, starfruit, basil, shiso, as well as the aforementioned veggies.

The entire spring roll concoction was then dipped in a dipping sauce and devoured.  I can still taste this dish -- it was incredibly delicious, lean tasting and not muttony or overly gamey.  The hot pot was delicious as well, but the roasted goat is what I will dream about.

Lau De, The Boiled Goat Inn
105 Truong Dinh - District 3
Tel: 9304296
Ho Chi Minh City

Monday Thoughts

I have been developing a few photos from my trip, trying to decide what I am going to do with them.  Of the few that I printed, this one came out really nicely in 8 x 10.  I took it at the Dalat airport while we were waiting for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City.

I'm back in Los Angeles this week, working and also babysitting my favorite 12 and 9-year old boys -- the sons of some lifelong friends -- for a whopping eight days.  Yesterday was a banner day as I took them to the first farmers' market that they've ever been to.  Mark, the youngest, was pretty interested in everything, even choosing some purple cauliflower from Weiser Family Farms, carefully inspecting about 5 booths of strawberries before settling on our purchase, and also taking home some kettle corn. 

If you happen to see a copy of Time magazine this week,  check out this week's cover story "Eating Better than Organic" about the local food movement and one man's account of trying to make a decision between local and organic. I felt like a proud parent when I received the press release on Friday, as the Eat Local Challenge blog and the Locavores are both mentioned in the piece.  Big pat on the back to all of you who work so hard to talk about the importance of where your food comes from.  We are being heard, and are acting as catalysts for a conversation that is now occurring throughout this country!

Cyclo Ride, Hanoi

In a couple places in Vietnam, we took a cyclo ride.  For some reason, I imagined that it would be a relaxing, quiet ride through the town to see the sights.  It was basically anything but.  It was loud, and right in the middle of traffic.  But it was a super interesting way to watch the way that this city works.  Watch this video to see the cyclo crossing through a couple of intersections.  And remember while watching this that the zoom length on the camera I was using (my powershot sd700) was very short.  So when you see, for instance, a bus right in front of me, it's about 2 feet in front of the cyclo.

Candy Street, Hanoi

Hanoi's Old Quarter is a maze of small streets spread over a few square miles in the middle of town.  Many of the streets have a singular focus:  A street of nuts and bolts, a street of carnival-sized stuffed animals, a street of shoes, a street of travel agencies, a street of mirrors. 

The picture taken above was a street of vendor after vendor selling dozens of varieties of small candy.  The yellow candies in the middle became a favorite of mine - strong ginger flavor in a hard, sticky candy.  Delicious. 

Haircut II, Saigon

Haircut, Saigon

Streets of Saigon

Friends and family are asking to see more Vietnam photos on a daily basis.  I have yet to figure out an efficient work flow for editing from RAW to web (and to print) effectively, so the photos may be coming one or two at a time for a while.